Editorial: Women in sensory neuroscience

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Gori, Tonelli and Nava. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Editorial: Women in sensory neuroscience

Women have made remarkable contributions to this field from the early pioneers to the current generation of researchers. Their expertise and dedication have shed light on the intricate workings of the sensory systems, including vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The representation of women in neuroscience has evolved, reflecting significant progress in promoting gender diversity within the field. One notable example is the groundbreaking work of Rita Levi-Montalcini, who, along with Stanley Cohen, discovered nerve growth factor (NGF), and elucidated its role in cell development and survival. Their discoveries laid the foundation for our understanding of neurotrophic factors and their implications in neural development, plasticity, and diseases. Another notable figure is May-Britt Moser, who, along with her husband Edvard Moser and their collaborator John O'Keefe, unraveled the neural mechanisms underlying spatial navigation and discovered the existence of grid cells in the brain. Their work on the brain's inner GPS earned them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014. These examples, among many others, highlight the groundbreaking contributions of women in neuroscience, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and transforming our understanding of the brain. Historically, the number of women pursuing careers in neuroscience was relatively limited, facing barriers and biases that hindered their participation. However, in recent decades, women have been actively engaged in various subfields of neuroscience, including sensory neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and computational neuroscience. This growth in representation has been fueled by advocacy efforts, mentorship programs, and initiatives promoting inclusivity and equal opportunities. While there is still work to be done to achieve full gender parity, the increasing number of women in neuroscience today demonstrates a positive shift toward a more diverse and inclusive scientific community supporting the importance of continuing efforts to promote gender equality and inclusivity, as it not only benefits women but the entire scientific community and society as a whole. In this Research Topic, we collect contributions from women expert on sensory neuroscience who contributed to a better understanding of important processing in the brain. We have summarized the results of these works considering three main topics that are (1) Low and high levels of sensory processing, (2) Multisensory processing, and (3) Special populations.

. Low and high levels of sensory processing
Perceptual information can be investigated on different levels, from low-level information to more complex processes that develop across the lifespan. Regarding  show that congenitally blind can learn to use a sensory substitution system (aimed at supporting spatial navigation) as effectively and as quickly as visually impaired individuals.
Similarly, Buyle and Crollen and Gessa et al. revealed that auditory deprivation does not impair the learning of basic and more complex skills, such as mathematics. Indeed, Buyle and Crollen found comparable subtraction and multiplication skills across deaf and hearing individuals. Gessa et al. found that sound localization in age-related hearing loss can be improved by head-movements, suggesting that self-regulation strategies and active behavior can keep spatial hearing functional.
Finally, Soker-Elimaliah et al. present a work on the relationship between pupil light reflex (PLR) and atypical neurodevelopment. PLR is associated with sensory processing and thus provides a good model to investigate the link between sensory and social functioning, especially in cases when the latter is impaired, such as autism.

. Multimodal
We receive information about the world around us from multiple senses that interact and are combined and integrated into a multisensory framework. In the Research Topics, there is a set of important results related to multisensory processing in typical and atypical individuals considering language, reward, learning, attention, memory, and perceptual processing. In particular, Benetti et al. discussed multimodal processing in face-to-face interactions proposing a neurocognitive model of multimodal face-to-face communication psycholinguistics and sensory neuroscience. Fisher et al. showed that sensory noise might underlie attentional alterations to multisensory integration in a modality-specific manner supporting the idea that attentional paradigm might be used to study sensory processing in neurological disorders. Shvadron et al. applied multisensory knowledge to sensory substitution devices showing that by utilizing a visual-toauditory sensory substitution device (SSD), the EyeMusic, it was possible to detect shapes by converting images to sound. Antono et al. show that visual and auditory reward cues can produce a value-driven modulation of perception. Finally, Murray and Shams review some recent findings that demonstrate a range of human learning and memory phenomena in which the interactions between visual and auditory modalities play an important role and suggest possible neural mechanisms that can underlie some recent findings.